Dr. John Benemann, Benemann Associates

Dr. John Benemann is often called a “pessimist” when it comes to potential of algae biofuels. However, he has stated that he is an optimist. Having worked in the field for several decades, Dr. Benemann definitely has the experience to back up his views. The following is an interview I had with him about the algae industry.

1. More and more algae companies are branching out from just focusing on biofuels. Do you think this trend will continue and what does it mean for the overall algae industry?

Yes, and it means that the already existing commercial production companies in the algae industry may get some competition from well financed start-ups for the relatively small current markets in algae nutritional products. Remains to be seen if the start-ups can learn the ropes of this business fast enough to become competitive in terms of cost of production and marketing. But this trend will disappoint, as the markets (e.g. nutraceuticals, cosmetics) are rather small, in both tonnage and total value. For commodity feeds the problems are the same as for fuels, the need to produce at large scale at very low cost. Products with intermediate cost/pricing and market sizes are the best bet for the near term, but these have their own challenges.

2. What do you think consortia like the NAABB will contribute to the algae industry? Do we need to see more of them? Less?

Not all consortia are created equal, NAABB is larger than the next three US DOE funded consortia together. We need to see not more or less, but longer-term funded consortia. Right now they are funded for 3 years, after that there is no assured money or budget for them, at least from DOE, and nobody else is likely to be in the wings ready to step in, at least that I can see. They need to be funded for at least 10 years, 3 years is just enough to learn what they need to do to get started.

3. Do you think the algae industry is lacking in funding, time to develop the technology, or scientific/technological breakthroughs that will lead to successful commercialization of algae biofuels?

Of course all of these, funding, time, and breakthroughs, are needed, but perhaps most important is the need for experience and expertise, and the time to acquire such and to allow the industry to actually develop these technologies. See prior question.

4. Do you think the industry is struggling from too many people giving overly optimistic timetables?

Yes. But that is not unusual of new technologies being developed, indeed of all human enterprises: we always underestimate the time it takes to do anything… at least something new that we have not done before. That is human nature.

5. What do you think is the number one problem holding the industry back?

There is no number one problem. There are a number of problems.

6. At some point in the future, what do you believe the maximum percentage of petroleum algae will be able to replace in the U.S.?

Only time will tell. It would be good to get to1%. That would justify all the work and effort, and then some. My view is that the first million gallons per year is the most important, it would give us the information we need to project the plausible costs and potential resource. Anyway, microalgae is not a single application or technology but several, some niche, some larger potential. But algae cannot replace any large percentage of current petroleum demand, no single technology can, not even all biofuel technologies and resources together will be able to. We need them all, and many other renewable energy sources, and, mainly, efficiency improvements and demand reduction.

7. Can you point to any particular company or research organization that you believe will have a large impact on the industry?

None can or should be named at this point, nobody has made the grade to actually producing something at scale and cost, not yet. I exclude fermentation companies, such as Solazyme and Martek, at least for scale, as they belong to a different category, which would include other fermentation companies, such as Amyris and LS9 for examples only, that produce oils by fermentation of sugar or starch with yeast and bacteria.

8. Last year in an interview with the Algae Industry Magazine, you said that advances in cultivation, harvesting, and extraction need to be made. Since then, have you’ve seen any in the industry worth noting?

There are many claims but nothing disclosed in public that can be independently verified. So we need to wait and see if any of these will pan out.

9. Do you think that there could be a research discovery that catapults growth in the industry or have all the major breakthroughs already been made?

This is not something that a single “Eureka” type of discovery will solve. We need a lot of hard work, not one or two but several, even many, ‘breakthroughs’…

10. What is the most commonly ignored reality in the algae field when those in the industry talk about algae’s potential?

Reality.

11. Closing thoughts?

Algae biofuels is still an open problem, we do not know yet what the economics or potential will be. We do know that only open ponds would be able to achieve the low-cost required for biofuels. The fundamentals and economic projections, as well as LCAs (Life Cycle Assessments), are promising in costs and applications, but achieving the assumptions on which these are based and translating these into practical applications still requires considerable research and development work.

Dr. John Benemann
Benemann Associates

[UPDATED: 12/9/11, 10:30AM]

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